Kumsusan Memorial Palace

Kumsusan Memorial Palace Pyongyang Reviews

The Kumsusan Memorial Palace was once the official residence and office of North Korea's leader Kim Il Sung. It stayed in the function like that, until his death in 1994.

Then it was turned into the memorial palace, where the Great Leader has his final resting place.

I've seen Lenin's mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square and Mao's Mausoleum on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, but this mausoleum tops them both.

The big square in front of it looks equal to the size of the Tiananmen and the palace itself is huge.

Now, foreigners are only allowed inside during official government tours on thursdays and sundays. No photography, videotaping or even talking was allowed. I had brought my camera along, but that, any jackets and bags had to be stored at the wardrobe.

The tourguide also told that I had to dress formally for the visit. It's not necessary to wear a suit or a tuxedo, but clean pants and a button shirt is appreciated.

We had to go through a x-ray device, as well as a metal detector. They didn't want to take any chance with someone taking something inside.

The way leading to the room where Kim Il Sung rests, is a long one. With long corridors, where flat escalators took us, instead of walking, several stair cases and normal escalators, going on the elevator and even through a small wind tunnel or something that would blow any dust and dirt of us.

Each room we went into, was in honour of Kim Il Sung. One room was designed with a big white statue, marble tiles on the floor, gold (leaf) inscriptions and all kept spotless clean.

We had to form a line and pay our respects to the Great Leader, either by bowing or just stand there and not speak.

The room were the body of Kim Il Sung lays, was a big one, red dimmed lights lighting it up. He lies in a glass coffin, wearing a dark suit and tie. At every side of the coffin, we had to either bow or just stand there. We had to move pretty quickly, as they didn't want people to take their time in the room.

In my opinion, this is something you should see. I know a lot of people have their opinion about Kim Il Sung and what he did or failed to do, but the visit is part of finding more out of the country and how big the contrast is between the people and the leaders.

As all the visits to the various sites were included in the tour, it was unknown to me about the costs. That's why I made them free.